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Davenport Cricket and Football Club
The Davenport Cricket and Football Club is an Irish sporting club that has its roots in Canada. Davenport CFC has been known as one of the oldest amateur sports clubs in Toronto, Canada. The club began in West Toronto 1902 with a schoolboys' cricket team, and by the 1920s was fielding cricket and football teams from ages five to eighteen, as well as several senior teams. Since the 1960s, Davenport CFC has primarily focused on football, and in the 1980s became one of the leaders in developing sporting programs for women of all ages. On July 1, 2007, Davenport CFC merged their top Senior Men's squad with the top squads of three other area amateur clubs to form a professional side: Bartlett United. Davenport CFC still fielded a senior men's and women's squad in the Canadian local amateur leagues, but their top-rated men's players were streamed into Bartlett United's youth development system. In November 2011, due to a fire at the club's century-old clubhouse and the subsequent retirement of their long-standing President, the club's management was at a crossroads. The Board of Directors at the club voted in favour in closing the club, but Davenport's Vice-President, Mary Nolan, went public, and the football community began a campaign to save the club. The campaign drew the attention of retired Bartlett United goalkeeper Ronnie Murnane who offered a solution. Murnane, a former Irish international, offered the club seed money if they were willing to relocate to Ireland. With no other options, the Board agreed, and Mary Nolan left for Limerick to become the club's new President. She appointed Murnane as the new Manager, and Davenport relaunched their professional men's squad in Ireland's Senior A league. Their first match was on November 25, 2011, with Jack McKenna scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory. Nolan made a few moves on the transfer market after taking the reins, first bringing in winger Danny Paterson from Scotland, and then following up with a few more international signings before eventually spending close to seven million Euros to bring Portuguese striker Gama Ibarra to Limerick from Macedonia. After being operational for the second half of the season, Davenport finished in eleventh place. Striker Conor Brennan was top scorer and MVP with six goals in eight matches. Season 27 began in 4.Division, group 7, where Davenport started the season with six straight victories, including a 9-0 defeat of YNWA's reserve squad, followed by an 13-0 drubbing of Eire Abu's reserves. New signings, including Bahrain's Hamal Al Haimour, for whom Davenport paid a reported twenty-five million Euros, and Serbian defender Marko Berić, who scored a hat trick and was Man of the Match is his debut, were key in the early success of the club. 'League Results' =Players= Current Roster Notable Former Players Notable Former Players When Bartlett United was formed, Davenport's top Manager Leo Patrick was given the nod to be the inaugural Manager. He selected his roster from all four of the amalgamated rosters, but took the nucleus of his Davenport side with him. Standout goalkeeper Bruce Hlynka moved into the professional ranks along with defenders Tino Cameron and Kevin Freyman, striker Wes Belcher, and midfielders David Bethune, Kevin Wyley, and Mike Byers. Bethune was named the first-ever Captain of Bartlett United. Since that inaugural draft, several players from Davenport CFC have gone on to success with United. Once the club moved to Ireland, its youth academy stopped sending players to United, and instead graduated them to Davenport's own senior professional side. Current Senior Bartlett United Players Chris Lauck Category:Canadian Football Clubs Category:Football Clubs